Music venues in ChinaThis section of our website is still under construction. Places to go to in China for concerts of classical and popular music are often well-advertised or easy to track down in tourist brochures. What we would like to do here is list all the public locations in China where traditional (folk or classical) music can be heard. These are places often known only to local people and to some researchers of Chinese music. For a start, Stephen Jones (SOAS, London) has taken a look at the narrative-singing scene in Beijing. He lists some addresses below. We invite our readers to provide us with similar information about traditional musical activity in various cities throughout China. For example, who could help us to a list of narrative-singing venues in Tianjin? Where should one go to hear teahouse music in Shanghai or Guangdong? What are the best place to see local opera? Hopefully we can extend this list over the coming years and gradually turn it into a genuine guide to venues of living traditional Chinese music in the People's Republic, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other parts of the world! Narrative-singing in Beijing While Beijing is doubtless a far less active scene for dagu narrative-singing than Tianjin, several pleasant qushe venues are now established which are not overrun by tourists paying through the nose:
Beijing 100022 Chaoyang qu Chuiyangliu beili 14 lou 1 men 15 shi The newsletter may be featured on the website http://union.etc.pku.cn/opera Maybe someone can do this better than me: that's what I know, anyway! Stephen Jones Sizhu in Shanghai 2001Despite a substantial quorum of laowai Jiangnan sizhu aficionados, with Larry Witzleben's 1990 Silk and Bamboo music in Shanghai as their bible, it is always worth keeping track of the amateur scene in Shanghai. Please help expand this list and keep it up to date! Music takes place mostly from around 2 to 4 pm, though some start a bit earlier. For all the fabled futurism of Shanghai, here may be more sizhu clubs active now than in the 1980s: one senior musician knew of over 30 in central Shanghai alone, not to mention the more distant suburbs - giving us a chioce of several venues any afternay 2001 as a starting point: most are in western Shanghai. All are welcoming; some charge a couple of kuai for tea money, others nothing. Of the more celebrated venues, sizhu is no longer played at the Wenmiao (since it started charging entrance as a tourist site in 2000); the Chenghuang miao "pavilion in the heart of the lake" is still active on Monday afternoons but may be catering increasingly to tourists. Xianxia lu, Sundays Xianxia lu 435 long 5 hao 3 lou Xianxia wenhua huodong zhongxin The successor of the Yunhe guoyue xuehui, renamed Tianshan in 1977 and Xianxia in 1984, it is now run by the venerable Zhang Zhengming (77 sui in 2001). Xuhui club, Hongqiao lu, Mondays Hongqiao lu / Yishan lu kou Xuhui jiedao wenhua zhongxin, 3 lou 126 tram Shuicheng lu, Tuesdays Shuicheng lu 689 (?) hao Changning qu laolingren huodong zhongxin 71 or 127 bus Qinglian jie ("Wanzhuga"), Wednesdays Lianyi zhulebu Lao Ximen, east of Xizang nanlu, just north of the Baiyun guan Daoist temple. Run by senior musician Wang Shuigui. I kuai 5 mao for tea money. Hunan lu, Thursdays Hunan lu 301 hao Jiangnan guoyue hui near the Shanghai Conservatory run by Chen Xinghou (89 sui in 2001) Xinjing club, Hami lu, Fridays Hami lu 433 hao Xinjing zhen wenhua huodong zhongxin quite far west, over bridge over canal. 88 bus. This is the Xinjing guoyue she, established in 1988 and run by Yao Zhenping (76 sui in 2001) Baotun lu, Saturdays Baotun lu 220 hao (basement) Xizang nanlu near Zhongshan nanlu The descendant of Wei Zhongle's Zhongguo guanxian yuetuan, this club tends to play arrangements with conservatory instrumentation A fine exhibition called "Sanshi niandai Shanghai sizhu yueqi shiliao zhan", highlights sizhu activity in Shanghai from the Republican period, with atmospheric photos and some fine instruments. On the 5th floor of the amazing new Dajuyuan (Grand Theatre) building, but billed to end in October 2001, this exhibition is such a well-kept secret that it is unknown even to the officials in the building where it is housed; you will need great perseverance to persuade them it exists. If you're there just for the exhibition, try and avoid paying the costly entrance ticket to see the whole building. Nor does the list of active Daoist temples in Shanghai seem to diminish. Apart from the splendid Baiyun guan in the city itself (Fangxie lu, just west of Xizang nanlu), and a lively folk huoju Daoist scene, active temples include the following: in Pudong: Qinci yangdian, Longwang miao, Chongfu daoyuan, Shezhuang miao and Sanyuan gong (nunnery) in Nanhui, the Dongyue miao in Fengxian, the Shangzhen daoyuan in Minhang, the Guandi miao in Qingpu, the Zhujiajiao Stephen Jones (updated September 2001) |